Multiphasic Development and Validation of the Psychosocial Strengths Inventory for Children and Adolescents–Short Form (PSICA-SF)

Despite ample research demonstrating the developmental and clinical importance of psychosocial competencies (e.g., prosociality, attention regulation, compliance to caregivers) in early childhood, few measures exist that are clinically relevant, developmentally appropriate, psychometrically validated, and pragmatic to administer, score, and interpret. One promising option is the Psychosocial Strengths Inventory for Children and Adolescents (PSICA), a parent-report measure of affective, attentional, and social competencies in youth. Although the PSICA has growing psychometric support, it remains a relatively lengthy measure (i.e., 36 items). Thus, we sampled 865 community caregivers (75% White, 59% mothers) of children ages 2–10 (72% White, 55% boys) to empirically develop and validate the PSICA–Short Form (PSICA-SF). Items were winnowed based on best-practice internal and external criteria (i.e., structural validity, convergent validity, internal consistency, and item-response discrimination indices), then further assessed for judgmental validity via quantitative survey completed by a snowball sample of 18 early childhood experts. These methods identified a 9-item version of the PSICA-SF, which retained the original PSICA’s trichotomous structure and related subscales (i.e., Prosociality, Compliance, Attention), good internal consistency, face validity, and convergent validity. Collectively, these findings support the PSICA-SF as a more pragmatic, while equally psychometrically sound, multidimensional measure of child psychosocial competence that might be used for relevant child screening, case conceptualization, progress monitoring, and program evaluation.